When I started homeschooling, my children were 8, 5, 2 and 2. Twin toddlers in the mix meant I had to play zone defense in order to help my big kids accomplish any school work. As a military family, we did not have family close by to stop over and help. It did not take me long to realize that two toddlers were not going to sit quietly and wait while I was working with the older kids.
I drew on my previous experience as a preschool teacher to set up learning centers at home. Using learning centers at home was my strategy to keep my younger children engaged while homeschooling big kids. It also doubles as a cost-effective preschool curriculum.
Learning Centers for Preschool at Home
My preschool curriculum routine is a relaxed approach to learning. Preschool does not need to involve an expensive curriculum. Simple learning activities for preschoolers or toddlers are all I used to prepare my children for kindergarten.
This strategy sets up the opportunity for learning through hands-on activities. While the big kids work on their school work, I set up a couple of stations with learning activities for the younger two.
Around the dining room table, I arranged a few preschool activities. If you have younger children, you can try the activity ideas for toddlers from my blog. All of these ideas have been used in my home with my children. These learning games are easy to use at your homeschool co-op or a neighborhood playdate as well.
It is easy to reuse each activity. Store them in gallon Ziploc bags, and they can be reused over and over again. I still have some learning games I made 10 years ago!
Setting Up Learning Centers for Preschoolers and Toddlers
Here are some examples of how I set things up for my preschoolers. On one day, I placed a different game near separate chairs around our dining room table.
I set up a letter matching game to teach letter identification and order. Next, I placed our domino counting and matching game at another end of the table. Then, I set a couple pieces of blank paper out for open-ended drawing.
On the floor I placed a white board with numbers written in order. Number magnets were set in a bag next to it so the magnets could be matched to the numbers on the board.
My children could pick where to start. Then I told them when they were finished with one activity, they could move to another one. The twins were actively engaged in learning for their age. This gave me the time to focus on the older kids too.
We did our preschool at home using learning centers just like this. It was an organized way to teach multiple academic concepts in a child-focused, hands-on way, making it feel like play. For toddlers, the learning center time was casual. Only a couple of activities would be set out. For preschool age, I started a more regular routine of cycling through 3–4 centers a few days each week.
Balancing the teaching of older kids with toddlers and preschoolers is possible. It just takes some preparation. With the learning centers at home system, the little kids feel included, sparking their love of learning. Implementing simple, inexpensive ideas helped me learn to balance homeschooling children of varying ages—I hope they will give you some inspiration to try as well!